Haunted Locations in Wisconsin

You should start one for MN Tom. Fun tags, often interesting places, and usually fun stories associated with them. Here is a starter list. More detailed information is available by searching about individual sites.

Looking forward to seeing other people's pix and the stories they relate about some of these places. Fancy pix not required!

I think you'll have some fun with this! Don't forget to search around the web as their are some pretty entertaining stories beyond the book and the overview site.

I just posted a new GPX with about 280 waypoints in it. I divided up the waypoints by region so people can sort through it a little easier. A search using "haunted" in front of the location name will get the details. Otherwise, look at the city the waypoint is in and search the overview site for haunts in that city.

Waypoint EC07 Walnut Grove Cemetery Glenbeulah

This is a haunted cemetery on a hill on the edge of Glenbeulah.



The story here is that a guy hung himself in the cemetery. His head came off and rolled down the hill into the town. Now his headless body roams the cemetery looking for his noggin.



Some have reported seeing apparitions including some strange looking red and white people.



Strange lights appear around graves. One grave is reported to glow in the dark.



A pair of shoes has been seen to materialize on a grave.



Some graves split open down the middle.



There is a secluded secret house back in the woods. Someone lives there.



Probably best not to be there when it gets dark.

Waypoint EC21 Galloway House Fond du Lac (from Door County ride)

As you go through the house you can hear people moving around and talking. You can hear kids giggling in the upstairs playroom. Plates clatter in the kitchen. Yet no one is there.

The servant quarters are off limits as if something bad happened there.

Waypoint EC24 Ramada Plaza (from Yellowstone Trail ride)

This is formerly the Retlaw Plaza (Walter spelled backwards). It was built in 1922 and was a big deal for a lot of years. Some notables that stayed there include JFK, Hubert Humphrey, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Gene Autry.

Walter died and he haunts the place. The staff is said to keep an informal log of paranormal activity.

People feel that there is a presence in the doorways of their rooms. Lights and faucets turn themselves on, there are screams, banging noises, and apparitions.

Room 717 is a paranormal hotspot. In 2001 guest and staff heard screams coming from the room. They key wouldn't work. The door flexed as if someone was kicking it from the inside. When they finally got into the room, no one was there and there were no marks on the door.

People have felt tingles on their backs and their hair has been pulled. A flash of light appeared on an empty balcony. Channels are frequently changed to C-SPAN.

People have reported a glow in one of the banquet rooms. Male voices can be heard. Phantom footsteps follow people around. Unseen bodies bump into people. People report the ghost of a man who walks into walls. A beautiful red headed woman in a white bathrobe appears startled and disappears into a hallway.

The ballroom chandelier sways and trembles without explanation. An employee who heard a noise in the room investigated and saw a couple that was dancing vanish before his eyes. This happened to another staff member who fled down the hall and heard lockers in the locker room shaking.

Waypoint SE69 Fowler Lake

Back in 2003 and old man was out alone in his boat fishing on Fowler Lake.



People think he may have had a heart attack as he faltered and went over the side and died.



It is said that he haunts the lake every evening at sunset. He can be seen out there in his boat.

Waypoint SE70 Old Oconomowoc High School

The story here is that a student hung himself in the lower gym.



Now he haunts the place.



The building is being converted to apartments.



This haunting will be an added bonus for those that move in.



Or, perhaps, an added surprise.

Thanks. HDR and sometimes some other post processing.

Any old picture will do along with the ghost story.

Paged through it on Amazon preview. Looked like a fun book!

Waypoint SE17 Nashotah House

Some people have lived on the grounds here since the 1500s.



A ghost has been hanging out here since the mid-1800s.



An acolyte to an Episcopal priest attended this seminary.



The man's wife had an affair with the Dean.



To accommodate the affair, the man's wife hung him and killed him. It was ruled a suicide.



Since suicide is a mortal sin, the acolyte couldn't be buried in the cemetery and was buried in a cornfield instead.



The cheating wife confessed to the crime on her deathbed.



The seminary tried to right the wrong by reburying the guy in the cemetery. When they exhumed the grave, it was empty. The acolyte haunts the grounds in a quest for justice.

Waypoint SE66 Heaven City

Heaven City is a restaurant with an interesting past.



Back in the day, gangsters used to come here for a relaxing break. One time the whole place was lost in a card game in a back room in East Troy. The guy managed to win it back with a lucky hand.



In the 1930s a street preacher and his following bought the place (400 acres) in a foreclosure and he started some kind of tax scam school for children of the disciples in his religious commune.



The place is haunted now. Some employees have quit because they don't want to be in the place alone with ghosts. Footsteps are heard and doors open and close by themselves but no one is there.



A giant tip jar has flown off the piano. Employees names are called but no one is there.



Glasses float through the air. A woman walks through the dining area and then disappears.



One ghost likes to lock a stall in the ladies room from the inside.

Waypoint SE18 Rainbow Springs Mukwonago

I was out pheasant hunting with a friend today. We stopped in the old small town of Eagle. As we had lunch, we noticed an old place that used to rent rooms. A very successful and very rich millionaire took a bad turn investment wise and ended up broke and living there. There were no phones in the rooms so he set up his "office" on a stool at the end of the bar. He died shortly thereafter.

The property that took him down was the Rainbow Springs Golf Course. It is said that since he couldn't make it go, he made sure that no one else could. He is said to haunt the place.

Two stories about his background are here.

I visited the site earlier this week.

This is an aerial shot from when it was in business but incomplete.


He had a clubhouse (still standing) but the hotel was fraught with problems and never got finished. I think there was a fire there as well.



I had to walk in to the gated property as no motorized vehicles are allowed.



It was late in the afternoon and the woods I had to pass through was deep and dark.



Lots of wildlife moving around. One explorer reported horrific sounds in this area that seemed to be dogs fighting.



If you read the story I liked to in this post, you can see why the developer haunts the place. It seems to have been problem after problem that took him down. In the end, he felt that he was unfairly treated by the banks. Hence, if he couldn't do it, then he would see to it that no one else could.



Once the DNR purchased the property, they let the golf course return to prairie grasses. The fairways have held up remarkably well.



The ruins of the hotel are gone. This clubhouse remains.



It was a 20 minute walk to get back here from the gate at the road.



At one time, this was something, but it was also the least of what he was developing here.



Now, it is a home for the ghost of a man who saw his life crash here.



I don't know what the DNR plans to do with this structure.



Late fall darkness was coming on fast and I had a 20 minute walk to get out. I headed for the road as it got darker and darker in the woods. Finally I came to this trout stream and caught the moon reflecting off the rippling current. A series of long exposures produced this image.

Waypoint SE67 Fork in the Road (formerly Inn the Olden Days)

This place used to be a tavern. It was built in 1885.



Employees say that they have heard footsteps and the sound of pool balls hitting and rolling across the floor.



They have seen clouds of fog and have heard voices in the store room.

Waypoint SC07 Dungeon of Horrors Wisconsin Dells

This place used to be a Ford garage. About 50 years ago the owner committed suicide with a shotgun just as his employees were coming in the front door.



Employees have seen an apparition of an older man with glasses. The apparition has been seen with an axe following people. There are cold spots and glowing orbs. A partial hand has materialized and then disappeared.



People have felt breathing on their shoulder when no one was there. People have been grabbed by invisible hands and hit by invisible objects. The owner once felt something on his shoulder and he could hear static or crackling in his ear. Employees saw a orange glowing apparition. When an employee shouted "There it is!" the entity moved off, dissipated, and the statis sound ended.



The owner says that the haunting has been going on for some time and that he has a hard time keeping employees because of it. He says the activity seems to peak in August each year. It is also more prevalent on rainy and overcast days. He said that over the past 24 years he has had the place, about 80% of his employees had some kind of paranormal experience.

Waypoint SC04 Showboat Saloon

The upstairs area directly above the bar is said to be haunted by a ghost named Molly. She opens and closes doors and plays with appliances when people are in the upstairs kitchen cooking.



In the bar area, human forms in turn of the century clothing materialize in mirrors. Sometimes they appear to be walking along the bar heading for an exit.



A strange voice has been heard many times in the stage area.



There are unusual cold spots in the cellar. Kegs of beer get moved around. Employees have experienced feelings of nausea and sudden anxiety while in the basement.

Waypoint SE20 Eschweiler Buildings Wauwatosa

Back in 1912 Milwaukee County had the largest rural population in Wisconsin. They built the Milwaukee School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy.



There were four class buildings, one administration building, a dorm, power house, barn, greenhouses, poultry sheds, and other small buildings.



Students were given hands-on technical training including how to build a farm shed.



Milwaukee County residents attended free of charge. Others paid $27 tuition.



In 1928 the ag school shut down.



The story is told that these buildings were later used for a tuberculosis sanitarium. People have reported the feeling of being watched while on the grounds and that their hair stands up.



The sound of coughing is often heard. Perhaps this sound comes from the ghosts of TB victims coughing up blood and mucous.



People have reported seeing a woman in white peering from an upstairs window of the administration building.





A few years back, the Sheriff's Department hosted a national SWAT convention and exercise here. The place is shot up a bit on the inside from paintball guns.



There is a movement afoot to try to preserve these buildings.



Someone reported a live telephone closet inside the building as well as some electricity still hot.